Source: CA.news.yahoo.comYukon wildlife authorities are proceeding with charges against an Alaska hunting guide who’s accused of poaching game in Canada.Roland Martin, 72, is accused of more than 30 cross border violations. The charges stem from a joint United States-Canada investigation called “Operation Bruin.”Martin was a big game guide in Haines, Alaska for over 30 years, but American authorities have already ensured Martin will never work again in Alaska.This October, he was convicted in a federal court in Juneau on five felony counts relating to illegal hunting and importing wildlife."Mr. Martin would bait brown bears, subsequently use his aircraft to aid hunters in taking game that was not perceived as fair chase," says Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Schmidt, who prosecuted the case.Charges were laid in 2012 after undercover operations documented more than a dozen cases of bear baiting, and scouting by airplane for goat and sheep hunts."He was willing to do whatever needed to be done either to make his clients happy who were paying him or to take the animals he wanted to take," Schmidt says.Martin's sentence includes a lifetime ban from guiding in Alaska. He’s also been ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and forfeit all his hunting equipment, including a PA-18 Piper Supercub airplane.Schmidt says authorities had been keeping an eye on Martin for a long time."Oddly enough when I was a state prosecutor I have prosecuted Mr. Martin on several occasions."Martin is also accused of illegal sheep and moose hunts in the Yukon, stemming from hunts in the Kluane Park region. Charges include federal violations for smuggling game back to Alaska.Martin is next scheduled to appear in Yukon Territorial Court in January. More....

Vast, wildlife-rich and staffed by only 13 in-the-field conservation officers, the Yukon is a perfect target for organized wildlife smuggling, says Michael O’Sullivan, director of the Humane Society of Canada.Each day, float planes could be clandestinely crossing the Canadian border, landing in remote areas and whisking out anything from sheep to falcons to bear parts without anybody knowing.“These things could definitely be going on,” said Tony Grabowski, manager of enforcement and compliance with the Yukon conservation officer services.The international market for smuggled wildlife is booming, with worldwide sales running anywhere from US$10 billion to $20 billion annually, making it the biggest moneymaker for organized crime after drugs, according to Interpol, the France-based international law enforcement network.Smugglers have been apprehended with endangered bird eggs shoved into bras, hollowed-out teddy bears stuffed with endangered reptiles and hummingbirds jammed into cigarette packages.In 2002, a man was arrested at Los Angeles’ LAX airport after two large birds of paradise came flying out of his luggage at security. Two pygmy monkeys were found stuffed in his pants.Several species of Yukon wildlife are at risk of falling into smugglers’ cross hairs.The territory’s gyrfalcons have long been prized by Middle Eastern falconers, fetching up to $100,000 apiece in the United Arab Emirates, report UN officials.Already, sheep poachers have been known to cross the Alaska border by float plane into Kluane National Park. More....